Secret Heartache
by xNik Nakx
Summary: Draco has been turned down by Ginny, his one true love, and he thinks on what he could have done better before returning to Malfoy Manor, where he lives with his wife. R&R Please! ::SEQUEL TO FORBIDDEN LOVE:: So reading that first may help.
1. Chapter 1

**_Secret Heartache_**

**A/N: This is the requested sequel to "Forbidden Love", my most recent one-shot. I have spent hours of the last two days searching high and low on the internet for a song that I felt** **would represent the type of relationship that Ginny and Draco shared. It has been dificult, believe me. I was away yesterday at a family member's bach, and the whole bay had no electricity, so no internet, as my PSP wouldn't pick up wireless hotspots that I needed to start my research, otherwise, a sequel to "Forbidden Love" would have been up last night, easily. So, I apologise for the delay, but I did have fun. I caught an octopus when I went fishing. :D**

**I hope you enjoy the sequel as much as I enjoyed writing it, the Song is Randy Travis' "Reasons I Cheat" Which I find is a rather amusing song really, but it was the best I could find to suit the situation. I'm not really happy with it, but Enjoy....**

Draco Malfoy sat at his desk in his director's office of a multi million dollar firm which provided finance for investors in the Magical and Muggle worlds. Running this empire took up a great deal of time, but in a way he was thankful for the distractions that a late night of work caused. He knew, deep down that he was neglecting his wife, Astoria Malfoy née Greengrass, his secondary betrothed after Pansy's death, but the affection and love he should be giving her was something he couldn't give her when he had to fabricate it. Even though most saw him as shallow, arrogant, self-absorbed, and sarcastic, he couldn't lie to his wife like that. But he was lying to her. Some nights, she would ring him, yawning heavily, wanting to know when he would be home.  
"I'm sorry, Astoria, but It's going to be another late night, an urgent case came in after my senior consultants finished for the day, so I have to deal with it. I don't know when I'll be home" He would lie through his teeth, speaking into the small silver muggle cell phone that he rather liked, as his mistress would lie quietly next to him, waiting for him to end the call before continuing her ministrations.

_A working day to long when everything goes wrong  
And a boss who don't know I'm alive  
I once had a notion I'd get that promotion,  
but now I barley survive_

He worked all day, he barely saw his wife who had her own obligations as a debutanté of the wizarding world, a crucial part of the wealthy pure-blooded social circle. He worked all day and half the night while she slept half the day and partied away the nights with other wealthy young pure-bloods. Astoria would gossip on and on about the women she shopped and socialised with, telling 'juicy tidbits' that made Draco roll his eyes in frustration. He wanted to talk about more, intellectual things, such as the muggle and wizarding economy, the lastest front page of the _Daily Prophet, _things she would never understand, and so he didn't bother mentioning them to her. He had wondered, looking in her eyes and seeing a look that was unkniown to him, he concluded that perhaps she had realised that he barely talked to her, that he tried not to start conversations with her.  
_  
A wife to demanding with no understanding  
Of why I stay dead on my feet  
__  
_His mistress was different. Though she was far from the poorness of her youth, she had to work hard as a trainee-healer in order to earn herself a tidy sum of money which she was saving most of so she could buy a house. This girl was Ginny Weasley, though he prefered to call her by her given name, Ginevra. Ginevra had goals in life, she was simply a more beautiful person inside and out than his wife. Draco found himself, shortly after the beginning of his marriage, feeling in the need of someone who he actually wanted to be with romantically, and he searched for an intellectual equal, and he found that in her. She had an inquisitive side to her, that asked all about Draco's job, and the types of clients that he met with during the days that they met. Draco cherished Ginevra as a stark and welcome contrast to Astoria, who could frustrate the hell out of him at times. But Ginevra had taken notice, had finally become sick of his continued false promises, she thought he was being all talk and no action, which at that time he was, and she was sick of it, and she had ended their relationship, affair, whatever you wanted to call it. He didn't know what you called that sort of thing.

_A dimly lit tavern a willing young woman  
Are some of the reasons I cheat  
The hair that I'm losing and a women who's choosing  
To lay sound asleep by my side_

Draco lay his head in his hands, ignoring the overflowing "In" Basket that sat on his desk, full of unfinished paperwork. He knew that he should be attempting to tackle the pile of work in front of him that was probably already overdue instead of sitting here at his desk looking depressed and no better than a junior executive. He was the director of this damn company, shouldn't he have minions doing the hard work for him? 'Incompetant Assholes' he thought to himself but still didn't bother to work. His thoughts were solely on Ginevra. A woman had never dumped him before, he had always been the one to call the shots. He'd promised to leave Astoria and marry Ginevra, and he wanted to do that, he really did. He'd been promising Ginevra a homestead in the country with a big backyard for Quidditch, and multiple children. It seemed like a perfect life for them to have together. But he had neglected the one stipulation in the Betrothal Contract with Astoria. Upon annulment or divorce, Draco would lose all rights to the Malfoy fortune, and it would all go to Astoria, if they had not conceived a son. He couldn't divorce Astoria and give Ginevra all that she deserved. So he had hired many attorneys and set them ont he contract in an attempt to find a loop hole, and he kept putting Ginevra off, postponing their future, and she had finally given up. He knew now, too late of course, that he should have told her the truth right from the start. If they had run away together with no money, nowhere to go, he would have no job, and their would be bills and rent and all sorts of things that would need paying. But the truth had needed paying out first, and he had left it for last.

_The bills they are mounting thats when I start counting  
On someone to help sooth my pride  
A lady that knows me affection she shows me and a smile so easy and sweet_

He wished, and felt pathetic for trying to believe in supersticious magic, that Ginevra would ring back, begging him to go to her. He almost wanted to ring her and beg her to let him into her flat, and back into her heart. Malfoy's didn't beg, a small voice in his head reminded him, and he still had some pride and dignity. He then thought that Malfoy's didn't usually fall in love, for as far as there was records, each Malfoy son had been betrothed to a pure-blooded girl of similar class and breeding. Of course, for Draco this was more habit than his actual opinion because of what his father had pressed upon him during his youth, and he strived to be different from his father. That had been why he had opened the company to the Muggle public after he had become director. Ginevra had told him how noble and thoughtful he was becoming by striving to be different to his father, and that had both excited and scared him, but he had ploughed on, working on building the company to new heights and working two relationships. He had barely been given a chance to breathe, let alone think and reflect.

_The dreams that I've buried the load that I've carried  
Are some of the reasons I cheat  
_  
A small photo sat on one side of his desk, the only photo ont he desk, a picture of his beautiful and devoted mother, whom was remaining alive longer than expected, nagging him to produce a son, a heir, who would one day take over Draco when he became of age. A son, whom Narcissa would name, as per Malfoy family Tradition. Draco had not been looking forward to the moment when Astoria would announce her pregnancy to the family, as he and Astoria had had sex a few times, he would probably be able to count on two hands how many times, since their marriage. Draco had emersed himself in his work and his outside life without her in order to escape as much of the obligations of marriage that he was expected to uphold. It scared him really, to know that unless his attorneys still mananged to find a loophole in the Betrothal Contract, he was expected to spend the rest of his life starting and raising a family with a woman he barely knew, and he didn't care to know. Perhaps if Astoria had an ounce of intelligence, a knowledge of something other than fashion, make-up and gossip. But, alas, he had picked the short straw and ended up with a blonde bimbo whom he was stuck with. Glued to until his last breath. Wouldn't that be enough to scare any man out of any relationship?  
_  
My children keep on growing me age keeps on showing  
Like all of my old friends I meet  
So I'm getting older my life's growing colder  
Just some of the reasons I cheat  
_  
He sighed, he suddenly felt one hunded years older, one hundred years wiser after this whirlwind realisation of his true feelings for Ginevra. He loved that girl more than he would ever, ever be able to love Astoria and he knew that, Ginevra was blissfully ignorant, and Astoria knew that Draco had a mistress whom he had feelings for, she just didn't know who it was. Draco would protect Ginevra's identity as his one-time mistress for the rest of his life, a secret that he would take to the grave if he stayed with Astoria. The media coverage would ruin her good name for the rest of her life. She would be seen as nothing but the scum on one's shoe just because she fell in love with a married pure-blood who many saw as above her. The two of them, Ginevra and Draco, were really the only two who accepted one another for who they truly were, for perhaps they only acted as fully themselves when they were together. Thinking these deep and love-filled thoughts brung small tears to Draco's eyes, which he refused to let make tracks down his cheeks. What had they thrown away? He felt so guilty, for he had truly ruined her by not thinking his choices through properly. The guilt was gut wrenching because he loved her so.

_Yes I'm getting older my life's growing colder  
Just some of the reasons I cheat_

Draco stood and turned off his desk lamp, a heavy sigh echoing around the room as he shrugged on a heavy winter coat with a luxurious fur collar even though he would apparate from the office straight into the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor. He was glad that the house would be empty, for Narcissa was accompanying Astoria to a social event that she could not ruin, for many of their social circle considered it to bet he event of the year. He had no idea of what actually happened at this event, for if his mother or wife had ever attempted to tell him, he wouldn't have listened to a single word. Appearing in his home with barely a small pop, he headed straight for his office, which was a part of the expansive library filled with ancient leather tomes that had always fascinated him. Draco poured himself a glass of firewhiskey, what he knew to be about half a dozen 'shots'. He sipped at the amber liquid that burned his throat no matter how much he drunk it, and he leaned into a brown leather sofa that decorated his home office. A picture sat on the corner of the desk, and no matter how many times he turned it over so he couldn't see it, it was always righted by someone, because the house-elves were forbidden to tidy his office. It was a picture of Draco and Astoria on their wedding day, each appearing rather glum, but more emotions could be seen if you really knew the people in the photo. Ginevra, for one, would know that Draco would have felt angry at his father, sympathetic of his mother who had to continue the strict traditions, slight hatrid for his youger bride, mixed with the love for another woman. Nobody, perhaps not even Astoria, knew Astoria well enough to tell what she was feeling that day. She was upset that she could not marry her childhood sweetheart, but she was hopeful for the future and that everything would be all right eventually, she felt desire towards her groom, who was a very handsome man, and she felt sorry for the man she married because she knew then that she would never be let in past his cold exterior, so she would never be able to love him and make him happy. Putting his cold exterior back in place, and freshly dug wounds in his heart to remind him of what would happen if he ever let anyone in deep enough to reach his heart, he stood and left the half filled glass on the corner of his heavy oak dresser, he headed for a suite at the opposite end of the Manor from the Master Suite, fingers crossed that nobody would find him there til morning.

**What ya think? Reveiw and tell me!**


	2. Chapter 2

**_A Chance At A Second Chance_**

_The Sequel to Forbidden Love and Secret Heartache has been named 'A Chance At A Second Chance'. It is told from the veiwpoint of Astoria, and is still posted under the Draco-Ginny category, so it will be easy to find._

_I am planning on writing one more one-shot after the current one, a conclusion peice. When you read 'A Chance At A Second Chance', most of you will be able to guess what will happen in the conclusion. _

_So, enjoy..._


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